The Holy Grounds
by White Osprey
Summary: Hojo returns to the 'Holy Grounds', the place where it all began to reflect on memory and destroy all that is imperfect with it. However, his process is ruined when old demons come back to haunt him...


Ahh, the fresh reliving of old memories. The bitter taste of where it all began, where the legacy was first born unto the world. Like the tree where the buddah sat and gained his enlightenment, this was what the ShinRa mansion was to Hojo. This was where God was born within his mind, this was where the woman he had said he had loved gave unto them God. This was where the celestial being from the heavens had resided for so very long. This was where destiny was shaped, this was the place that would be written down in the holy scriptures for Sephiroth. This was the place, that if in the new universe it still exsisted, people would make pilgrimage's too. Where they would touch the wooden walls, and cry out blessings to their god. The god that had given them so much mercy, who had saved them from theirselves.

Yet who would be worshiped above God himself? His father, his creator. The one above god, the one greater than the greatest form of greatness! He would be the devine overlord. The one who had given a true God to the people.

Oh yes, this was where it all began. This was where he had came, feet tired from the long walk, came for his own pilgrimage. Came to try to find the old glory he had felt so long ago when his heart had been young. The same feeling, trying to recapture it. It was a thing all humans did. Like when they finished a good book, where they might relive the tale within their minds, but they would never find completeness from it. They would never not read another book again. They may despretly look for sequels, or find those who had loved the same book, trying to recapture the old glory by make fan videos, fan art, roleplaying, just trying to find that same completeness.

Something Hojo would never find again.

The scientist trailed his fingers along the iron gates of the mansion, the smooth metal, though more rusted than before, reminded him of that time. Even the air here smelled as it once had. Tasted as it once had. Everything was as it once was. After he pushed the gate open and closed it behind him, he began making his way a long the dirt path. He bent down along the way, picking up some of the soil and letting it drift through the spaces in his fingers. In the future, this would be holy soil. He was walking on holy ground, he must be careful not to damage it. This thought provoked a laugh from him, a short one though it was. His left hand raised to cover his mouth as he laughed, and he hunched over his hand, the maddness growing so horridly within him. He loathed the feeling, but let it take him over this time.

Then, he cut his laugh short, remembering he had more important things to do. Running his fingers through his hair, disturbing the bangs that hung down the side of his face and causing more to join them, he made his way. Stepping up the stairs, he turned and looked back, eyes focusing behind slender biofocals. He serched for any sign of life, any sign of being followed. He was never usually this cautious, but he wanted to be alone tonight, he wanted to find completeness by himself tonight.

He stepped inside of the edifice, into the dark oblivion. Light fell as panals from the roof, the great gashes and holes left by the destruction time had made. Rats scurried from underneath him, into the darker corners of the room, where they lay in watch. Waiting for the lab coated mad man to make his way.

He had come here for one purpose other than to try and find a sense of inspiration again. He had came to find anything that pointed towards evidence of Gast, and destroy it all. Gast could have none of his glory, could have none of what was his. Everything that had once belonged to Gast or had meant something to him was gone now. He would make sure the last evidence of his exsistance would be fully eliminated. He should have done this much earlier, but he hadn't had the time for things like this. Now it seemed so important, and he loathed himself for not completing this task sooner.

If Hojo could be compared to any animal, it would be the Magpie. The bird that took all it saw as valuable, and disregarded everything else. The bird that slaughtered everything but its own kind, that killed the innocents chicks and stew their organs on the ground. The intelligent animal that analysed every situation, portrayed as evil because of it.

Yet could Hojo truly be called evil? He longed for a universe, a perfect universe. One free of suffering, one free of desire. One free of pain, of hate, of disgust. He wanted a this universe, and though many would have to die for it, could one really say his intentions where evil?

Of course, so many would just brush him off as insane. Who would want to ask themselves the question, was Hojo right? He thought these thoughts bitterly as he travelled deeper into the mansion, deeper into the embrace of his mind.

Into the embrace of his past.

Hojo had came a long way. The building had creeked and groaned to his steps, unwilling to being disturbed. Repressing him, rejecting him like everyone else in this bitter world had. Yet this building had an excuse, he supposed. A reason, a valid one. Unlike those scum who had simply thrown him away, crushed him like he was nothing. Pah, what fools they had been. What fools everyone on this planet had been. Empty, soulless insects caring more about their pathetic social lives than the good of all man kind. Than the advancements of science.

He reached the study, clearing through the drawers and finding little scribbled notes Gast had left behind. Memories, pathetic memories from a mind that had stolen all that was his. That had stolen the credit to which he alone deserved. To the foolish man who had lost himself to Love instead of science. Pah, anyone could love, everything just chemicals and hormones and the desire to pass on genes. It had been analysed andpicked apart by science, there was nothing new to discover. It would just be discovering the same thing that any fool could uncover. Science was about the understanding of something new, about the creation of something new.

About growing closer to finally creating Man's true dream. To creating God.

He took what few notes he found, turning down into the secret passageway. His steps where long and slow as he passed down the stairs. His shadow imprinted on the wall, following him protecting him as he took his time entering the bleak abyss where it had all truly began. The wood was old, eaten away by termites and various other insects. He felt a cockroach scttle over his shoes, and his bottom lip curled in disgust. How could ShinRa let this building go to so much disrepair? Though Sephuroths fires had burned it down, they should still have restored the Holy Grounds. It was insult to god himself.

He laughed slightly, his laughter echoing out into the corridors, etching itself into the dark oblivion. An endless laugh that replayed itself to him, before finally waning into the atmosphere. The cold, bleak atmosphere. Hojo would have shivered if his whole mind had not been lost to this task. He had no time to pay attention to how cold he was.

He reached the library, glancing towards all the books that had been left. He ripped out some of the books, taking the few written by Gast, throwing them to the floor as he began his task. As Sephiroth had burned down the whole town before, he would burn the written words of Gast. The fire would not disturb the rest of the building, he would make sure not to let it grow, but the last remains of that bastard would be gone. Nothing more than ashes.

He laughed again, this time so much more louder and with so much more force. It was a laugh of victory. He thrust his head back, hands raising as he embraced the ecstacy that was to win. Laughing mockingly now towards the dead man, the one he had set his dogs on to rip apart.

Then he sensed something, hearing the door being kicked open behind him. He closed his eyes, smirking violently to himself as he slowly lowered his hands back to clasp behind his back. He hadn't really expected this, but it would be entertaining at least. The smirk turned into a frown when he realized who it was. Oh what a bothersome bore, old monsters coming back to haunt him.

"Are you going to kill me, Valentine?" He asked cautiously. "Kill a helpless old man?" He turned to face him, black eyes focusing squarely on the orange-red ones. So this was what became of his creation? Pah. He was still wearing those clothes he had gave him. Did he wear them as some kind of momento? Punishment for the past that he still considered his sin?

"You disgust me, Valentine. You think that you can solve all your problems with violence. You earned respect with violence, it was the only world you ever knew. You where nothing more than a dog, a sniveling dog that couldn't help but stick its nose where it did not belong. Now you are still a dog, foolishly thinking all your sins will be paid by making me bleed. What good will come to the world by ridding it of me? What good will come to you?" The frown deepend as he planned the perfect attack, the attack that was more than likely going to make Valentine pull the trigger. "You will not rid yourself of the monsters within you. You can call me a monster all you like, destroy me like a fiend, but inside you will always be the true monster. You tried to take from me what was not yours, thought you could save her. Thought you where protecting her. You couldn't accept that she was mine, that her decisions where her own. You thought I was an iniquitous monster forcing the one you wanted to bed into doing such things. You thought that because it was I who was bedding her and not you. We where scientists, Valentine, something you failed to understand. Being the dog that you are, you lashed out at me. Being the fool that you are, you did not kill me then and there. What did it earn you? Exactly what you deserved. The coffin in which you slept, and should have slept in forever.

Hojo really did talk to much.


End file.
